In order for this apology to truly be meaningful, the severing, by force, of parents from children, and children from parents and families, must be stopped, now. Over half the children in foster care are Natives. And as the statistics show, even today, foster care is a horrific, and horrifying, place for a child to be. Even if they are “good” foster homes, the damage done to a child by ripping them from their parents, and the damage done to parents and families when a child is ripped from them, is incalculable, irreparable.

Children who go through foster care are much more likely to end up physically and sexually abused, become addicted to drugs, drop out of school, be incarcerated, become homeless, and commit suicide. Yes, much more likely even than if they stay with their supposedly abusive Native families (this assumption – that Native children must be getting physically and / or sexually abused in their own homes in order for them to be removed to foster care – is just one more example of the deeply ingrained prejudice against Natives). The real statistics on the harm done by foster care are not even known, because the government fudges what it does let out, and the rest in remains a secret. For good reason.

If the government truly wants to help, it needs to do everything to enable families to stay together, rather than tearing them apart. Until this devastation of families is addressed, the problems will only grow worse, as generation after generation inherits the psychic wound that never heals, and, with every generation, only keeps getter deeper.

If the government owes Natives compensation for the past, for residential school abuse, and the suffering of parents and children who were torn from each other, then it certainly owes them something for the continuing devastation of families. That was then, and we may have some small excuse, even if it was only that it wasn’t directly “us.” But this is now, and it’s all of us, but government especially, who are allowing this genocide – and it absolutely fits the definition – of families to continue.

I’m not a Native, and I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not well off, by any means. But you can take my taxes any day to pay for this abomination. If I can pay for “carbon tax,” I sure as hell can pay for ruining hundreds of thousands of lives, and untold generations, for no good reason except to keep foster homes, adoption agencies, and Child Protection workers, and all the rest of the Kidnapped Native Children Industry, in business.

The next time you see a young Native wandering hopelessly, perhaps stoned on drugs, or high on alcohol, ask yourself: where did they come from – what, and who, so ruthlessly murdered their spirit. Chances are, it was the government’s “contractor:” foster care.

The government wants to absolve itself of responsibility, because it knows that it will be, eventually, held accountable by some small voice in the crowd, that grows louder, as the collective conscience gathers – it therefore classifies foster parents as “contractors,” rather than employees. Very sly indeed. Anticipating massive class action lawsuits, and attempting to nip them in the bud. That knowing, that sly planning ahead, the premeditation, to my mind, is infinitely more despicable than sending children to residential school decades ago, when we were all so much more unenlightened. It verges on pure evil. Total power to destroy, zero accountability.

The inhumanity and the brutality inflicted upon children and families continues, make no mistake about it. Until this is addressed, apologies are a kind of insult – a slap in the face – to the spirit of Natives, the intelligence of Natives, as well as all Canadians, who know, or should know, what crimes they, and their elected government, are perpetrating.

This time, let’s have the money go to the Natives, and especially to the ones who suffered the most – the children who grew up in – and are still held in – foster care; and the parents who were psychically murdered by this cruelty, for their pain is even more than the pain of a parent who has lost a child to natural causes. I dare anyone of you to ask any Native mother or father what they felt, what they still feel, when their flesh and blood is torn from them so cruelly, so coldly, by our very own judicial system. Ask any one of them, and no matter what the answer, it will always amount to the same: Having a child stolen from you condemns you to an endless aching of the heart. Ask yourself too, how many of these Native parents themselves have you seen, will you see, on the streets – stoned or drunk, doing anything to try to escape the pain from which there is no release but death.

The lawyers don’t need any more money – heaven knows they’ve made enough over the years. Let an honest one come forward, and take a fair wage. This suit will be won by the Plaintiffs, make no mistake, and Natives don’t need to make any corrupt contingency deals which only shaft them out of their fair share in the end. Then give what is owed to the ones who have suffered, the ones who are still suffering – if that includes the entire community, so be it. Only then, can we make an apology. Only then, can it be from the heart.